I was looking for a book to get me in the mode of studying for the CISSP exam. I read a bunch of reviews, and this surfaced as one of the prime study guides for CISSP. I purchased it, and it's huge. It's nearly 6 inches thick (maybe thicker). I travel a lot, so lugging it around quickly became a total hassle, but it is full of information regarding the CISSP exam.
So, to be clear, the book is a study guide for passing the exam. It is not a reference for all things relevant to a CISSP. If you haven't taken the exam, or really familiarized yourself with the material, there is a huge difference. The breadth of material necessary to pass the exam is immense, and no single book could really do justice to the entire body of knowledge. This book skims over the 5 bazillion topics you need to be familiar with to pass the exam. If you need to actually KNOW something about a certain topic in any depth, you'll need to find another reference to augment the topic.
What this book really taught me was that I needed a course if I was going to get through all the material. I don't require a CISSP for my job, and no one was going to force me to get it, so I knew I would never put in the time necessary to go through all the hundreds and hundreds of pages to get through it - and if I did, I would have forgotten all the stuff at the beginning by the time I got to the end. So, it was a $50 litmus test to help me decide to take a course. I'm sure a dedicated, diligent studier, however, could make great use of this book, and probably even pass the exam (I see some other reviewers have).
I would also recommend coupling this study guide with the practice exam questions,
CISSP Practice Exams (All-in-One)
. Of all the practice exams I took, with the exception of the (ISC)2 practice exams, Harris' were, by far, the most "similar" in terms of difficulty, layout, and verbiage of any of the practice exams I took. Both books in conjunction could certainly make for a formidable knowledge base for a dedicated person trying to pass the CISSP exam. Good luck!